With a heavy heart, on 22 December 2021, Nigeria destroyed 1,066,214 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccines donated by Western countries through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access program (COVAX) under the auspices of the World Health Organization.

Donor countries had “generously” shipped vaccines that were nearing the end of their shelf life and could, therefore, no longer be administered without risk to recipients.

In passing, may we point out that mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna are not, strictly speaking, vaccines. They were lumped together with vaccines in a US tax bill that went through Congress a few days before the outbreak of Covid-19 in China [1].

[1] “Vaccines and RNA messenger”, Voltaire Network, 8 November 2021.